Re: Some (usage) questions I used to wonder about

Jeff,

The only time I move files around is when I want to copy them to make an off-device backup. It would be nice to be able to do that from inside Shadow instead, if that is possible, and if I could do that (perhaps with a separate "backup" command on the file menu, distinct from the "save" command, and with the ability to specify where the backup should be made). Otherwise I don't open Shadow files in any other app at the moment (Could I open a Shadow file in Open Office Word? That would let me create an outline and easily transfer it to a word processing file to expand into a written piece).

 Bert Latamore
Freelance Editorial Consultant




________________________________
From: Jeff Mitchell <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 11:14:14 AM
Subject: [shadow-discuss] Some (usage) questions I used to wonder about



Heres a couple (of many more) questionsw that've been floating 
around in my head since pretty much day-one. (Really :)

- do you like having files, or do you care?

For Palm and for earlier desktops and whatnot, files tend to be in 
our nature, but they're more a construct, perhaps not natural. To a 
non-computer user, they may not care.. they just know they're storing 
their data somewhere. To a computer savvy user, files are in grained 
within us, but that does not make them right. But it certainly makes 
things convenient -- you might have 3000 files, but you can just copy a 
couple (or all) of them to flash card or whatever, and being that I made 
files XML (on desktop), they're interchangable with other apps pretty 
easily.

But in your heart.. do you care nowadays? (without thinking about 
old usage patterns.) Would you really just want one big data store, easily 
searching across the entire things, and with export/import options?

Or do you like the ability to just grab a file and take it to 
work? (and if so, what if the export/import was seamless, so you could 
have multiple data stores and just drag and drop files in and out of it..)

- do you like/prefer/ dislike entering a filename (and optionally 
some up front settings) for a list, or would ytouhave preferred 'instant 
on' -- hit 'new list' and boom, you'r ein a default list and with an item 
open for data entry?

I probably could have built an option into the handheld for this, 
but I always figured to get it out of the way up front and 'be done with 
it', as a lot of people just use one big list (which related to the 
question above.)

- do you tend to keep all items of one 'type' in a list, or would 
you like to have a total mixed bag of any old thing in there? I think 
flexibility of type could be handy if it was seamless (its a little 
clunky now) .. but maybe in reality you always woudl kep one type of data 
in one place. (Maybe moot if we move towards one big data store type 
concepts..)

More to point though -- day zero I had thought of making 'record 
types', where a record was omre like a database; create a 'type' which has 
whatever fields you want in it.. instead of a title and optional this or 
thats, just make it so you could have a string you call title, and a date 
yo ucall start date, and a string you put log notes in, and whatever you 
want.  you define what data bits you want in a record. And then you drag 
and drop the fields around a little data entry screen to put them onto a 
card (for dispay sake); when creating or editing an item, you'd see this 
card; when printing or displaying the record, it'd use that card, repeated 
for as many records.

I didnm't do that, since it would be a tonne of work up front, and 
since it felt more databasey, and since it ate a tonne of screen space 
(and devices were small and low powered back then, remembering the 
original Palms), and it was hard to 'indent' for hierarchy, and so on.

Still, ht idea always stuck with me.

Free form records where you can put whatever you want in there, 
and a built in set of defaults like To-Do and Action and so on.

It would make searching and reporting more complex though, since 
you'd have to cherry pick which fields you wanted and so on.

Always a trade off..

Anyway, curious what you think :)

jeff

--
If everyone would put barbecue sauce on their food, there would be no war.

   

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